Aurora crash victim dies 16 months later

An Aurora man hospitalized since an October 2009 crash died over the weekend from injuries sustained in the collision, police said Monday.

Elvis Hernandez, 28, of the 1100 block of Farnsworth Avenue, was pronounced dead Saturday at Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago, more than 16 months after he was injured, according to a police news release.

Police said Hernandez was a passenger in a 1999 Lexus sport utility vehicle that rear-ended a box truck stopped in traffic the afternoon of Oct. 9, 2009, on the 1000 block of East New York Street in Aurora.

After the crash, the driver, identified by police as 28-year-old David Solis of Aurora, backed his vehicle into a nearby gas station parking lot and ran off, leaving Hernandez seriously injured in the front passenger seat.

Police said Solis returned about 45 minutes later and was identified by witnesses who saw him flee. He later pleaded guilty to failure to report an accident involving injury and was sentenced to 5½ years in prison.

Police said they were consulting Kane County prosecutors Monday about "upgraded" charges against Solis, who is serving his sentence at Western Illinois Correctional Center in Mt. Sterling, according to state records.

The state's attorney's office said the case remained under review, and no determination had been made.

Authorities said Hernandez suffered "major head trauma" and had been hospitalized since the crash. An autopsy was scheduled for Sunday in Cook County, police said, but the results were not immediately available.